


The Prodigal Child

by ranichi17



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Crack Treated Seriously, Father-Daughter Relationship, M/M, Post-Canon, Vignette, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 00:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17172761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ranichi17/pseuds/ranichi17
Summary: Everything comes full circle eventually





	The Prodigal Child

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time, I cracked a joke during Jess’ LP of the last V3 trial that maybe Shirogane is the lovechild of Ryouta and Sagishi considering her talent. This is the result of that joke.
> 
> Anyway, this was written using the [Chaucer meme](https://ranichi17.tumblr.com/post/180709513149/chaucer-meme), because otherwise, the length might have turned out of control. Although I _did_ cheat because I made it seven paragraphs per section instead of seven sentences. Oh well.
> 
> Happy holidays!

i.

 _Tsumugi_ , they call her, for the patch of hair on her head that already promises to become as fine as spider silk one day.

(Tsumiki still believes they named their daughter after her. She’s right, of course. Who else would they name her for?)

She’s a tiny little thing, and in Sagishi’s arms, she looks even tinier. She’s awake right now, gurgling as she looks up at both of her fathers. When Tsumugi blinks her great green eyes ( _Ryouta’s eyes_ , Sagishi realizes) as she smiles, Sagishi is reminded of how innocent she is. How innocent they all were, before everything happened. They can’t get their innocence back anymore, but Sagishi vows Tsumugi wouldn’t have to lose hers, hopes against hope that she wouldn’t grow up the way they did, not so long ago.

The world around them is changing once again, and he prays it would only be for the better.

“She’s perfect,” Ryouta whispers beside Sagishi with an exhausted smile. “Thank you.”

“No,” Sagishi says before kissing Ryouta on his clammy forehead. “Thank _you_.”

The sun has just risen, visible now that they’ve begun to clean up the pollution in the air the Tragedy helped cause. As its light streams in through the windows, Sagishi watches as Ryouta coos over their child and thinks it’s perfect.

 

ii.

It’s stressful, caring for a daughter and a husband. Ryouta’s never been in the best of health, and after the Tragedy, Sagishi doubts he’d ever recover.

Ryouta tries to help around with the housework, of course, but mostly he just spends the days trying to sleep and regain some semblance of healthiness. He can’t sleep at night, neither of them can. The specter of a girl in twin tails with the Devil’s smile still haunts their dreams.

Tsumugi’s a delightful little girl, but for the life of him, Sagishi can’t figure out just where she gets all that energy from. Maybe it’s the influence of all their classmates. He probably should have figured out letting them drop by and help around the house was a bad idea, but well, he needs all the help he can get.

The Foundation also drops by sometimes, Byakuya most especially. Oh, he can act aloof and distant all he wants, but Sagishi knows that look in his brother’s eyes whenever he’s interacting with Tsumugi. Their daughter has already has him wrapped around her tiny little finger.

Not that either of them are any better than Byakuya. On better days, Tsumugi always begs Ryouta to binge watch anime with her, with Ryouta pretending to be too tired until Tsumugi bats her puppy dog eyes and he gives in. On those days, Ryouta always sleeps a bit better at night, tightly clutching their daughter in his arms as they sleep on the couch with the television screen still turned on.

As for Sagishi, ever since Ryouta started indulging Tsumugi in watching Ghibli movies, she’s never stopped asking Sagishi to make her costumes like the ones her favorite characters wear. When she’s a bit older, Sagishi promises he’ll teach her to create her own clothes, but for the mean time, he gladly makes them himself. It’s a better use of his talent than anything he’s done in the past few years.

When Tsumugi says her first word, neither of them can figure out who she’s actually calling for.

 

iii.

The world is changing, but _this_ particular change no one expected.

They go into hiding, attempting to bury themselves in obscurity, the minute they hear about the massacre of Naegi Makoto’s students in the rebuilt Hope’s Peak Academy. Surely no one would remember either of them, side characters in a franchise that killed real people?

If Sagishi ever finds out who unearthed Enoshima’s killing games and restarted them, forcing all of their friends into hiding and making the games seem appealing enough that _children_ are auditioning for it, there will be _hell_ to pay.

Tsumugi, bless her, is still too little to understand anything that’s happening. She’s sound asleep now, her head resting on Ryouta’s lap as they sit across from Sagishi in the _shinkansen_ carriage. Every few hours she keeps asking where they’re going, or if they’re going to see one of her innumerable aunts and uncles. The first time she asked about the latter, it nearly brought both him and Ryouta to tears. How do you explain to a child that you don’t know if you’ll ever see your friends again?

“Do you think we can ever go back?” Ryouta whispers, a faraway look in his eyes as he cards his fingers through Tsumugi’s fine, dark hair.

“I don’t know,” Sagishi replies. “But hey, it’s going to be alright. I promise.”

Ryouta shakes his head, and looks out of the window instead. Sagishi follows suit, and as he does, he wonders to himself if it was foolish of him to think the world would ever change, all those years ago.

 

iv.

Tsumugi tells her parents all her secrets until one day she does not.

Was it their fault, sheltering her away from the reality that is Dangan Ronpa? They had meant to tell her about their pasts eventually, but it never seemed a good time to broach the subject.

Until one day during dinner, she confronted them about it herself and stomped into her room amidst the flurry of half–hearted excuses. The sound sleep they’ve had the luxury of for years disappeared that night. Ryouta’s been reduced back to a mess of nerves, bolting at the slightest of sounds and nigh–impossible to tear away from the window waiting for Tsumugi to come back from school every day.

Sagishi can’t remember when the last time they had spent time together as a family was. As much as he’d like to attribute the change in their daughter to hormones and teenage rebellion, he knows for a fact that it isn’t. Maybe they should have just continued to homeschool her. That way she wouldn’t have been exposed to the culture of killing games.

Sometimes, Sagishi catches Ryouta in front of their daughter’s door, staring at it for ages like he wants to knock and explain everything to her and tell her not everything is a lie. He never does.

Other times, it’s Tsumugi who Sagishi catches at the doorway entering with an armful of packages. He wants to believe it’s just materials for her next cosplay. But then again, he doesn’t even know if she still wants to go to the next con with them.

And then one day, she simply doesn’t go home.

 

v.

They look for her everywhere, posting flyers and calling anyone she might have gone to. Their friends have tried helping as much as they can, from wherever they are — Sagishi still hasn’t asked for their locations, just in case Team Dangan Ronpa manages to track them. But none of it is of any use. It’s like their daughter’s vanished into thin air.

Ryouta keeps asking him where they went wrong with Tsumugi. They just tried protecting her, didn’t they? Was that so wrong?

Sagishi wishes he knew the answer.

Six months to the day of their daughter’s disappearance, when their hopes of ever finding her again steadily dimmed, they get a message from an unknown number. They did what the sender said, even though didn’t really understand why the message told them to turn on the television at an exact station and hour. When the trailer for the new season of Dangan Ronpa started playing, Sagishi reached out for Ryouta’s hand and squeezed, having a feeling of what’s about to come.

It still doesn’t prepare him for when Tsumugi shows up on the screen as one of the participants, smiling like she’s having the time of her life.

Ryouta faints dead to the floor.

 

vi.

Sagishi didn’t think he’d ever reach a point where he’d be so close to breaking, not even during the worst of the Reserve Course riots, but here it is.

Ryouta’s still at the hospital, frighteningly silent whenever he’s awake, which would be at all hours if the hospital staff didn’t insist he needs to rest. Sagishi could sometimes hear him weeping whenever he’s standing outside the door.

The television set in his hospital room remains covered with cloth, and Sagishi’s determined that it stay that way. Ryouta doesn’t need that kind of stress.

It’s a different story whenever Sagishi comes home during evenings. Barely moments after stepping inside, he turns on the flat screen and intently watches over their daughter’s actions. It quickly turns into a vice, bad enough that the appliance almost overheats more than once because he fell asleep while it’s still droning on. She’s still alive, which just makes Sagishi’s fear for her grow more and more with each passing trial.

Then the season drops _Enoshima Junko’s_ name, and the fear that’s been creeping under his skin the entire time turns into cold dread.

Sagishi tries to reassure himself. Tsumugi would be saved by her timidity. She’s just a bystander in this game, posed no harm to the other participants, can’t steal the spotlight from the more colorful personalities of this twisted show, could not be a character strong enough for the producers to force the script to kill her.

After all, she can’t be the mastermind of this game, can she?

 

vii.

The finale for the fifty–third season of Dangan Ronpa is aired live, and Ryouta is insisting he be allowed to watch it.

Sagishi had been so careful that Ryouta find out nothing about the season, but the two nurses who talked about it within Ryouta’s earshot had dashed all of that.

He gives in after two weeks of begging and half an hour before the finale air, coughing as he pulls away the mantle on the television that’s been collecting dust for weeks.

Sagishi’s at the edge of his seat as it’s revealed that their daughter, Tsumugi who used to not be able to hurt a fly, killed the first victim, and that yes, she _is_ the mastermind of this killing game. A scream threatens to come out of his throat as Tsumugi effortlessly changes her appearance the way Sagishi taught her too, transforming into each of her parents, and then into every single one of their friends who had a hand in raising her.

Sitting up on the bed beside him, Ryouta turns paper–white as he holds on to Sagishi’s hand so tight that Sagishi’s sure he cut off the blood flow. Neither of them can do anything but watch as the robot who looks strikingly like Naegi Makoto goes on a rampage, destroying the arena and ending the Dangan Ronpa franchise for good.

The shot lingers on Tsumugi, waving as she stands beside the Monokuma unit, a sad expression on her face.

Sagishi realizes too late that it’s her birthday as well.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I also have a tumblr right [here](http://ranichi17.tumblr.com/).


End file.
